News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-10-06
THE TRADE IN POTATOES.
EXPERTS SAY WE CONSUME
100000 BARRELS A YEAR.
Farmers Who Raise $50 Bushels to
the Acre and Get 81 a BushcI


of New York that does not attract great
deal of attention from the public as long
as everything goes smoothly is the po-
tato trade, and since crops never fail
and prices do not vary much everything
does go smoothly year in and year out.
| Chow many potatoes do we eat in a
year, was asked of prominent west
side dealer
"Some experts say that it takes about
/ 1000, 900 barrels, or say rs many as
would load 500 freight trains of 25 cars
each, or fleet of 81 ordinary potato
! schOOners.
''And where do they all come from p
"Washington county"
| This answer was only intended to con-
vey the idea that Washington county
was the chief source of supply. No
| body here knows just how many pota-
toes are raised i'll Washington county
every year, but it is commonly believed
that the entire space from Fort Ticon-
derega to Eagle Bridge, and from Fort
Edward to the easternmost confines of
the town of Hebron is but one vast po-
tato patch.
The crop began to come forward about
week ago. The Troy and Albany
steamers had what the dealers call small
consignments of from 800 to 500 barrels
each. Then the Troy boats picked up a
little more trade and got to bringing
down Il thousand barrels day. This
week they will begin to do some bust
ness. They will have to handle any
where from 1000 to 5000 barrels every
day at each landing in this city Mean
will begin to bring down potatoes, and
some canal boats will have them on
board instead of the grain and lumber
that have hitherto supplied them with
cargOes, until, as one dealer expressed
it, there will be quite jag of potatoes
on the market.
"Will they break the market2" was
asked.
''Not break. OF course prices will
weaken little. We average $1.75 u
barrel wholesale now, and we will get
perhaps SLIGO, maybe as low as I.5O
then. But the price cannot sag much
more because the quality then will be
better than now, and the export and
the Southern trade will carry off the
surplus. Cuba and the other islands
thereabouts will take very large num-
Der, while the whole country south of
Pennsylvania depends on Washington
county. Then the crop in Ohio and
west of that State is short, and many
potatoes usually shipped this way must
go West. | expect potatoes to go West
even from Rochester.
''The quality of the crop is superior
this year, and on that account prices are
a shade-say five cents barrel-higher
You ought to have been here when the
earlles were coming In from Long Island.
No better potatoes We're ever boiled in
milk with green peas or served with their
coats baked brown, and their hearts
ready to fall into flour when the coat
was broken. And the quantities What
do you think of II man gel ting $50 bush
els to the acre, and selling them for more
than dollar a bushel! Well, Long
farmers raised that many, but a Wash
ington county man thinks he'll buy his
wife silk dress and his daughter a
piano if he ever ge?s $50 bushels from
an acre.
"Mow much does he get for his $50
bushels p
"About thirty-fve cents q bushel on
the average. The dealers up there buy
them to be delivered at the nearest river
port OF railroad station. Then the
freight is from fifteen to twenty cents a
barrel. OF course we have a commits
sion for selling them, and the truckman
has to get something for carrying them
from the pier to the store. That is how
the farmer gets about half as much for
Il barrel as we get. But then 200 bush
els at thirty-five cents are better than
fifteen bushels of wheat Mt ninety or
eighty. -
The Hu son river VIII float the bulk
of the potato supply of New York until
it freezes; then the Hudson River road
will get the business. But at about that
time fleet of rOund-nosed schooners
will appear at the North river slips that
will come all the way from Nova Scotia.
The potato is big crop in Nova Scotia,
and there is no law to prevent Nova
Scotia fishing schoOners from trading to
o the ports of New York. These pota-
toes arrive just in time to prevent the
grower of American potatoes from real
izing an advance which the winter sea-
son would naturally bring.
When winter cts in hard and fast,
one great reserve stock of otatOes is to
be found in the Erie Basin and the slips
about Piers 4, 5 and e, on the East
river 1t is the fashion for the owners
of canal boats, when industry and thrift
have had the proper reward during the
SUNNI to buy loads of potatoes IL
along the canal and bring them down
here and then tie up ior the winter. 1t
is a safe speculation for the potatoes
have ready sale at good prices, and the
profit rounds out the seasons results
very nicely. Hundreds of thousands
of bushels of potatoes are brought to
New York every fall in this way.